epic22: First Team to Finals Confirmed

The upper bracket final took place between Team CeX, a team who had not dropped a single map by this point in the tournament, and Enclave Gaming, the tournament first seed who had numerous run-ins with London Lynx on their path through both the groups and the upper bracket.

Map one, de_inferno, had been played by both teams through the event. CeX had nothing but success so far, and hence were cool, calm and collected heading in to the game. For the Enclave side, the memory of their loss to London Lynx on the map was likely still in the forefront of their minds.

They went on to make many similar mistakes to those that they had made earlier in the day, losing out players early and if not that, struggling to keep hold of a bombsite after a successful take. The CeX side were making their presence known and their intentions clear: no fear and no respect. They were frequently seen taking on risky pushes on their CT side and running through smokes, which more often than not managed to work in their favour. Not that it should be surprising, given it is the exact type of play we have come to expect from Owen “smooya” Butterfield, who is known for ridiculous peaks and far-fetched flick shots with the AWP.

Train unfolded in a similar manner, although CeX were even more dominant than they were on the former map. They started off on the T side, and yet still managed to deny the Enclave side from getting any significant number of rounds on the board. After winning the pistols and dropping the first gun round, CeX were straight back in to the game. In fact the only rounds that Enclave were able to claim for themselves were when armed with pistols, especially when Shane “SHANEY” Smith pulled off some crisp one deags to close out one of the rounds. As the second half came around it was clear there was no coming back for Enclave, and both sides knew it. It even prompted the second to last round to become a pseudo-knife fight, which started with a gentlemen’s agreement to knife outside but ended with Shane breaking the deal and taking out his rifle. The final round came to a close with smooya once again jumping through a smoke in a 1v2 and taking out the remaining two players, just as Jonathan “SHEEKEY” Sheekey was about to finish him off with a knife.

CeX now find themselves with the rest of the evening off whilst Enclave will have to wait to find out who they will face next in the lower bracket final. It looks possible that they could come up against Lynx for the third time this event.